A Taste of Justice

May 17, 2010 – 4:12 pm Posted by Katharine Moore

Filed under: Features

Being a member of the Dine Originals Columbus community means you have a standing invitation to plenty of not-so-usual happenings to be found just off the mainstream radar and, in some cases, right under your nose.

Each of our gatherings has a different alchemy, but there is a reliable warmth and upbeat vibe that happens every single time we gather our 42 member restaurants in one place. That place was the Smith Brothers Hardware Building for this year’s Taste of Dine Originals on May 13.  Without a hint of self-importance, our chefs, staff members, and owners created a night to celebrate the perceptive palates of our best customers. They have a gift for chewing the fat with old friends and new-to-town foodies, and enjoy a night dedicated to those exchanges.

Wikipedia makes the distinction between gourmets and foodies with this “Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food.”

Yep…we certainly attract the curious and the passionate in town. The Taste of Dine Originals event has grown into a sell out bash in three short years.

Our partners, The Buckeye Ranch, the presenting event sponsor Medical Mutual, and the guys at Capitol Equities who make that magnificent building available to us, provided all of the resources to ensure a top notch evening.  Add spectacular food, an amazing selection of wines, great music from The Real Thing, and the magic of the High Jinx stilt walkers and it was a feast to remember!

Not sure who was giddier about their good luck…the couple who won a year of Dine Originals Dining, or the guy who rode a new Schwinn Laguna 50 scooter home. In any event, the crowd was a perfect blend of discriminating eaters, accomplished sippers, and the always generous citizens of our independent community.

Ready to start thinking about the next one?  I have an incredible invitation for you!  Dine Originals Columbus and the Equal Justice Foundation are putting together an evening on May 26th filled with elements you just can’t find anywhere else.  The cocktail reception, hosted at the Ohio State Bar Association, will be…get this…catered by Columbus’s most opinionated food critics!

We’re calling this Turning the Tables.  Can they cook as well as they can write? Can they take criticism with the same wit and humor they dish it out with? This all remains to be seen…

Hors d’oeuvres will be provided by food writers and critics Jon Christensen (The Columbus Dispatch), John Marshall (Columbus Monthly), Steve Stover (Columbus CityScene Magazine and Edible Columbus), Rich Terapak (WOSU) and award-winning barbecue aficionado Jim Boudros.

Following the cocktail reception, guests will depart for the restaurant they have preselected from the list of six Dine Original signature locations.  Barcelona Restaurant and Bar, G. Michael’s Bistro, Rigsby’s Kitchen, Trattoria Roma, Alana’s Food & Wine and the Refectory have each planned a chef’s menu with great fare and fine wine pairings.  The whole package is available for just $125 per person.

As director of the ACLU and the Equal Justice Foundation, the late Benson Wolman fought for social justice throughout his life.  But, friends and colleagues say, after a day of waging war against injustice, he could always sip a carefully chosen bottle of wine and revel in the pleasures of the palate.  This evening, a first time event, is dedicated to his quick wit, his joie de vie, and his passion for civil rights.

Make a reservation here

The company, the cause, and the dining will fill a place in your soul that Dine Originals Columbus is pleased to nourish.